Table of Contents

Introduction
Physical geography
- The land
  - Geology
  - Continental ice sheets of the past
  - Terrain
  - Drainage and soils
  - Present-day glaciation
  - Greenland ice sheet
  - Other glacier groups
- Climate
- Plant and animal life
  - Vegetation
  - Animal life
    - Animals of the land and fresh water
    - Marine fauna
The people
- Adaptations to local environments
- Identification of Eastern and Western Arctic cultures
- Relations with the encompassing nation-states
- Peoples and cultures of the Eurasian Arctic and subarctic
  - Ethnic composition
  - Peoples of Fennoscandia and northwestern Siberia
  - North-central and northeastern Siberian groups
  - Linguistic affiliations
  - Demography
  - History of settlement
  - Traditional culture
- Peoples and cultures of the American Arctic
  - Linguistic composition
  - Ethnic groups
  - History of settlement
  - Traditional cultures
    - Seasonally migratory peoples: the northern Yupiit and the Inuit
    - Sedentary peoples: the southern Yupiit and the Unangan (Aleuts)
  - Historical developments
    - Greenland
    - Southern and southwestern Alaska
    - Canada and northern Alaska
  - Contemporary developments
The economy
- Resources
  - Mineral resources
  - Biological resources
  - Other renewable resources
- Transportation
  - Water transport
  - Land transport
  - Air transport
- Human resources
- Political and environmental issues
  - Administration
  - Environmental concerns
  - The Arctic in international affairs
Study and exploration
- The Northeast Passage
  - English and Dutch exploration of the Eurasian Arctic
  - Early Russian exploration
  - Conquest of the Northeast Passage
- The Northwest Passage
  - Early voyages of exploration
  - 19th-century attempts at the passage
  - Traverses of the passage in the 20th century
- Whale fisheries and the fur trade
- The North Pole
  - Attempts from Svalbard and Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat)
  - The Fram expedition
  - The race for the pole
- Scientific exploration
  - Svalbard
  - The Russian Arctic
  - Greenland(Kalaallit Nunaat)
  - The North American Arctic
  - The Arctic Ocean

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Arctic

northernmost region of the Earth

Written by Maxwell John Dunbar, Tim Ingold, Ned Allen OstensoSee All

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Jun 1, 2023 • Article History

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Arctic, northernmost region of Earth, centred on the North Pole and characterized by distinctively polar conditions of climate, plant and animal life, and other physical features. The term is derived from the Greek arktos (“bear”), referring to the northern constellation of the Bear. It has sometimes been used to designate the area within the Arctic Circle—a mathematical line that is drawn at latitude 66°30′ N, marking the southern limit of the zone in which there is at least one annual period of 24 hours during which the sun does not set and one during which it does not rise. This ...(100 of 37874 words)

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